PARIS- Paris during the Christmas holidays is one of the most magical places in the world. Eye Prefer Paris Tours & Cooking Classes is celebrating the holiday magic by launching special Christmas Tours & Cooking Classes for the month of December.

Tours:Richard Nahem owner of Eye Prefer Paris tours, will personally lead private Christmas tours showing clients the magical shop windows, gleaming outdoor lights, beautifully decorated trees, and festive Christmas markets all through Paris. The tour includes visits to department stores Galeries Lafayette & Printemps, the Champs Elysees, gourmet shops Fauchon & Hediard on Place Madeleine, and the rue St. Honoré, with designer shops like Hermes and Lanvin. The tour also includes a mandatory hot chocolate stop at one of the top chocolate shops in the city.

Tours are three hours and are available either 11AM-2PM, or 3PM to 6PM, seven days a week, from November 29, 2010 to January 9, 2011 with the exception of December 25, 26, & January 1, 2. The cost is 225 euros for up to three people and each additional person 75 euros. Tours are private and limited to eight people.

Students are given a tour of a fresh local Parisian food market to shop for some of the ingredients and then go to Charlotte’s private commercial kitchen near the Eiffel Tower. Charlotte will assist and teach students in making the holiday feast and at the end of class, students dine on the menu they prepared and drink Kir Royal and wine.

Classes are offered Tuesday through Friday the month of December from 9AM to 2PM, with a minimum of two students, maximum of six. The cost is 200 euros per person.

The city of Antwerp was host to IGLTA’s 27th Annual Global Convention this past June. More than 250 LGBT tourism professionals were in attendance — taking part in workshops, seminars and round-table discussions — making this the largest IGLTA Global Convention ever held in Europe. IGLTA members took to the streets on Saturday for the Consumer Trade Travel Show, organized in conjunction with Antwerp Pride. Held along the Kammenstraat, one of Antwerp’s trendy shopping streets, more than 2,000 consumers took advantage of the opportunity to win prizes, gather brochures and collect information from the 50+ exhibitors, all eager to better serve the LGBT market. The Convention was topped off with a Gala Dinner and the Antwerp Pride festivities, including the White Party and a night of clubbing at Red & Blue. IGLTA’s 28th Annual Global Convention will be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (USA) in 2011, and the city of Florianopolis in Santa Catarina (Brazil) will host the 2012 Convention.

Few people will argue that Paris is one of the most romantic cities, if not the most romantic city, in the world. From the top of the hills of Montmartre, to the luscious LuxembourgGardens, to the bridges on the Seine with jaw-droppingviews of the city, Paris is just oozing with romantic spots.We know that you are a savvy, sophisticated traveler, and you gravitate to the coolest places, but we invite you to indulge your inner tourist a little and fulfill some of the Paris stereotypes like climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower, sipping cheap Champagne while watching the tacky but fun Moulin Rouge show, or having a street artist draw a caricatureof you and your lover at the Place du Tertre in Montmartre. Here are ten ways to say je t’aime in the City of Light.

At The Perfect Love Pad

Nothing will set the mood better for your romantic Paris sojourn than the perfect hotel room. The best place to start is to search the comprehensive list of gay and gay-friendly hotels listed on www.parismarais.com,the gay-owned site all about the Marais, the top gay area of Paris. From charming, inexpensive small hotels to penthouse suites in chic boutique hotels, you will find many wonderful options here.One of the only four-star hotels in the Marais, Pavillon de la Reine, is tucked away in an ancient courtyard in front of the handsome Place des Vosges Square. The hotel speaks quiet elegance and 54 individually decorated rooms and suites are accompanied by a newly opened Carita Spa for the ultimate in relaxation. A more rustic choice would be Hotel de la Bretonnerie in the heart of the gay Marais, housed in a former 17th-century private mansion. Ask for the attic rooms with slanted ceilings and woodenbeams. If you are in a more uptown mood, the Hotel Costes on the rue St. Honore (the designer paradise shopping street) is a hip, happening hotel where the very stylish stay during Paris Fashion Week. The sumptuous Napoleon III-style rooms by Jacques Garcia are dark and elegant and the lobby bar is the place to be seen. Linger over a long lunch in the fab open terrace restaurant and purchase one of their music CDs speciallymixed for the hotel by hot DJ Stephane Pompougnac.

The quieter, more bohemian left bank offers the intimate L’Hotel, where Oscar Wilde spent his last nights holed up in his suite. Get the star treatment like other famous guests Princess Grace, Frank Sinatra, and Elizabeth Taylor with a one-star Michelin restaurant, pool and hammam for hotel guests only, and personalized service.Get under the sheets with Christian Lacroix who designed the whimsicalrooms at the conveniently located Bellechasse Hotel, across from the Musee Orsay. The seven categories of rooms have names like St. Germain, Avengers (a wink to Emma Peel), and Jeu de Paume with décor that ranges from modern sleek to baroque and cozy. Request a room that has a white, shiny bathtub in the center of it.

In Montmartre

Perched on a hill almost 1,400 feet above the city, Montmartre has some of the most breathtaking panoramas of Paris. The name means “mountain of the martyr” for which Saint Denis, the patron saint of France, was decapitated for his sins in 250 A.D. Until the late 1800s, Montmartre was a separate village outside of Paris, and since it didn’t incur the same high taxes on wine and spirits as Paris, it became the hotspot for nightlife in the late 1800s with the famous nightclubs and cabarets Le Chat Noir, the Moulin Rouge, and the Lapin Agile. Starving artists of the day (Picasso, Dali, Modigliani, and Monet) allhad their studios in Montmartre and frolicked away their days and nights in the local cafés while creating their masterpieces. Feast your eyes on the creamy white domes of the Russian influenced Sacré Coeur, one of the most beloved churches of Paris. Discover the haunts that precocious Amélie used to frequent, including the café where she was a waitress, Les Deux Moulins. Mosey down the winding streets with quirky, private homes, buy a clichéd painting of Paris in the Place du Tertre, and feed each other sweet crepes made fresh by the local street vendors.

On A Seine River Cruise

Did you ever dream about sailing down the Seine in the evening, maybe like Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn did in the 1963 romantic thriller Charade? Bateaux Parisiens fulfills the dream with three-course dinners plus wine and Champagne on a sleek, modern boat. An orchestra and a singer will serenade you while you gaze into each other’s eyes with magical Paris in the background. Less intimate, but just as romantic, are the 70-minute Bateaux Mouches cruises, which run every 20 minutes from 10:15 A.M. to 11 P.M. from April till September, with longer intervals the rest of the year. For a very special voyage, the Romantic Refuge is a tastefully refurbished barge available for private dinner or lunch parties for up to eight people. A private chef cooking an all-organic menu will cater to yourevery whim, and the unlimited organic wine will be flowing.

Sweets for Your Sweet

Chocolate is an aphrodisiac, so be careful or you may turn into a sex maniac with the dizzying amount of chocolate available in every corner of the city.Jean Paul Hévin, Patrick Roger, and Michel Cluizel, known for their dark, intense chocolate, are the premier chocolatiers and their shops stock every form of chocolate imaginable, from chocolate stilettos to designer versions of Nutella. (Don’t be embarrassed if you likemilk chocolate, it’s also available). Truffle hounds will go crazy over the sinful, velvety truffles lightly dusted with cocoa at Jean Charles Rochoux, a tiny shop on the Left Bank.If you prefer your chocolate in liquid form, Cathy, the genial proprietorof tiny Comme à la Maison (just like home) café prepares homemade to-die-for hot chocolate, which is pretty much like drinking a melted chocolate bar. Parisians take their pastries very seriously, and there are many players in the high stakes Paris pastry world. Pierre Hermé is the master ofthe universe, with his modern and inventive confections. Fans line up single file at the minimalist boutique for his famous macarons in traditional flavors like raspberry, coffee, and lemon and unusual combinations like strawberry and wasabi, passion fruit and milk chocolate, and white truffle and hazelnut.

His sweet rivals include Gerard Mulot, who makes the most delicious classic French pastries and Ladurée, also known for their large assortment of macarons. Meanwhile, Legay Choc boulangerie and patisserie bakes its naughty Baguette Magique, a creative brioche sculpted like a penis, once a week. If chocolate and pastry ever had an official house of worship,

Jacques Genin would be it. The stunning shop and café in the northernMarais, is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the taste buds with its grand metal staircase, stone walls from the tenth century, and sleek eather club chairs. Don’t let the interior distract you from the most orgasmic salted caramels; delicate, exotic, flavored chocolates; and mouthwatering pastries you will ever taste.

A Sensual Spa Experience

After your long days of wearing down your Pumas on the cobblestone rues and being weighed down by shopping bags, a delicious reward of a massage or spa treatment can be just the thing.

Anne Fontaine, famous for her shops filled with pristine white blouses, has opened her first spa in Paris. Anne was baptized in the rainforests of the Amazon so her treatments have a South American theme to them. Your body will feel like swaying to the samba beat afterThe Girl from Ipanema package with a guarana scrub, 12-coconut massage, and invigorating seawater bath.

Il Fait Beau in the Marais is a day spa and well-being space dedicated to the beauty of men. Hot stone and aromatherapy massages, seaweed and mud wraps, light hair removal, and mani-pedis are just a few of the choices from the large menu of treatments. Are you missing your workout and feeling a little flabby after eating so many buttery croissants?Drop in for a quick Power Plate session to tone your abs.For the ultimate in pampering, treat yourself to the Dior Institut at the Plaza Athénée Hotel (where Carrie from Sex and the City had her disastrous affair with Baryshnikov). Indulge yourself with five-star luxury and haute couture service with an anti-jet lag facial, a detox energy treatment, or the reviving leg treatment, which will resuscitate your weary shopping legs.

In a Painting

Art has inspired love and romance over the centuries. From the halls of the Louvre, to the Impressionist collection at the D’Orsay, to the contemporary galleries in the Marais, let great art sweep you off your feet. Are you intimidated a bit by the big museum experience? Paris has many excellent small museums, with some located in former private homes. The Carnavalet is the museum of the history of Paris and is housed in a magnificent 17th-century palace, along with some stunning formal gardens. For sculpture, nothing compares to the black and white marble figures masterfully carved by the great Rodin, including his most recognized work, The Thinker. The mostly outdoor museum is famous for its lush green gardens, an amazing untouched oasis in the middle of the city. A not-so-well-known gem is the Marmottan Museum, the former hunting lodge of the Duke of Valmy, which has the largest collection in the world of Monet paintings under one roof.

Galerie NEC, one of the top Marais galleries, has two spaces, one dedicated to museum-quality, Scandinavian, mid-century modern furniture and a newly opened space for contemporary art with a focus on modern ceramics.

The Palais de Tokyo is a fun, multi-cultural space with modern art installations, art bookshop, concept museum shop, and trendy restaurant.

Strolling Hand-in-Hand in the Marais

Le Marais is the gay section of Paris and one of the most beautiful in the city with grand, former private palaces and mansions dating from the 1600s, gorgeous small parks, squares, serene gardens, and narrow, winding streets. You will feel comfortable walking arm-in-arm or planting

With Food, Glorious Food

France is probably most famous for its unbeatable cuisine, aspired toand copied all over the world. When it comes to romance, one of your fondest memories could be an unforgettable meal. If a restaurant with a view means romance to you, here are two ofour top choices. On the Place du Trocadero, a well-kept secret is the Le Café de l’Homme, which provides a view of the Eiffel Tower that seems so close you can almost touch it. With excellent contemporary cuisine, we recommend going at night for dinner so you can witness the astonishing sparkling lights on the tower, which flash every hour on the hour. Georges, atop the Pompidou Centre, has some of the most impressive views and is a sleek, modern affair with eclectic food. Go at dusk and put on your chicest outfit because there is someserious people-watching going on.

Rue de Gravilliers, a small, gritty street, is practically monopolized by three trendy, cool establishments. 404 is a stylish restaurant with delicious, authentic Moroccan food, and next door is Andy Whaloo, a Moroccan bar and lounge with exotic cocktails and Moroccan tapas. The new kid on the block is Derrière, a combination restaurant, lounge, playroom, and private dining room. For haute cuisine without breaking the bank try L’ Atelier JoelRobuchon, which specializes in exquisite small plates that look like works of art. A hidden foodie gem among the trendy cafés in the Marais, is Monjul, with highly inventive cuisine. Chef Julien Agobert, who worked in some of the top hotels and restaurants like PlazaAthenee and Le Laurent, surprises with his unusual presentation and tantalizes the taste buds with winning pairings of world cuisine.Bofinger, off the Bastille, is a lavish, La Belle Époque-style brasserie, built at the turn of the century, that specializes in humongous raw seafood platters that are piled high with the freshest oysters from Brittany, as well as langoustines, crab, and mussels. For steak lovers, Le Relais de l’Entrecôte is a divine carnivore heaven with only one main course on the menu, steak, and it’s served with a tangy secret sauce, the crispiest frites, and a simple green salad. Vegetarians can rejoice with the Rose Bakery, a casual organic restaurant and takeout food shop with homemade vegetable tarts, minipizzas,and American-style desserts.

One could easily be overwhelmed by the number of great restaurantsfrom which to choose, so we have the perfect solution: The must read/must bring book for foodies, Hungry for Paris by Alec Lobrano, which has reviews of 102 of his favorite Paris restaurants.

While Shopping

Shopping is practically an Olympic sport in Paris, with more shops per capita than anywhere else, so go for the gold. L’Eclaireur is the most cutting edge fashion boutique in the city with a well-edited mix of unknown, up-and-coming designers and heavy hitterslike Comme des Garçons, Balenciaga, Dior, Lanvin, and Dries Van Noten. The women’s shop has a Fornasetti boutique along with a Fornasettidesigned restaurant and the men’s shop has an industrial feel to it. René Talmon L’Armée, a hunky, gorgeous, blond German, makes exquisite handmade jewelry on the premises of his handsome boutique. Working with semi-precious stones, black pearls, silver, and gold, the jewelry is rugged and masculine but finely crafted. René can custom design those special rings you have been waiting to give each other. Two concept store must-visits are Coletteand Merci. Colette practically invented the concept store over ten years ago with two floors of innovative books, CDs and DVDs, techno gadgets, high fashion, jewelry, sneakers, and skateboards along with a restaurant and water bar with over 50 types of bottled water.Meanwhile, Merci is a mega emporium with an eclectic combination of used bookcafé, designer clothing boutique, perfume bar, organic restaurant, vintage shop, and homeand house wares store.Scoop up some clothing bargains at La Piscine, an outlet store with labels like D&G, Martin Margiela, and Valentino at 50–70% off, or at L’Habilleur, which hasPaul & Joe, Duffer, and Plein Sud at bargain basement prices. If fetish wear is your thing, Rex has a full supply of black leather and rubber along with, believe it or not, a large selection of Fred Perry shirts. Thinking of getting an Eiffel Tower tattoo? Get inked at Abraxas tattoo and piercing boutique.

Nighttime is the Right Time

Experience the real Gay Paree at night with a myriad of bars, clubs, and cafés. Rue desArchives is the main street for gay bars and cafés and the L’Open Café is a good place tostart for a friendly drink with the natives. Tables outdoors serve simple food like burgers, salads, and sandwiches and inside is small and crowded with a mostly standing room bar.Cox is more hardcore and cruisy with a Chelsea boy and beer drinking crowd. Les Marronniers is a relaxed café with a large sidewalk terrace open till the wee hours. Around the corner, things heat up a bit more at Raidd, a dance bar with famous DJs and live,steamy shower shows of French go-go boys. L’Enchanteur, which attracts a more down home crowd. There is also a free jukebox withover 6,500 tunes, happy hour drinks at onlythree euros, and a smoking room. Go at it cheek-to-cheek at Le Tango/La Boîte àFrissons, by dancing the tango, waltz, polka,and paso doble until 12:30 A.M. After that, the club turns into an all out disco with a DJ. 3w, which stands for woman with woman,is a friendly, unpretentious, all girls bar, but boys are welcome if accompanied by a girl.

RESSOURCES :

APARTMENT RENTAL SERVICESIf you want to experience the city like a trueParisian, a great option is to rent a furnishedapartment: Paris Marais www.parismarais.com/rent-a-flat.htm

Paris, France — IGLTA members worldwide continue to be a vital source of news and information for gay and lesbian travelers. French member Richard Nahem, private tour guide and author of the popular Parisian blog EyePreferParis, was recently called upon by IGLTA media partner Passport magazine to pen the cover article of their May 2010 issue, in news stands on 12 April. Nahem’s “10 ways to say ‘I Love You’ in Paris” gives lovers at least 10 great reasons to visit the City of Lights. With more than 30 IGLTA members waiting to welcome you with open arms, Paris is also an ideal stopover destination on your way to or from the 2010 IGLTA Convention in Antwerp this June. So, whether you are traveling with the love of your life or just feel like sampling some of the local delicacies, come say “I love you” to someone special in Paris this summer!